Drones Fly High at 4-H Drone Discovery Event

JAMESTOWN, NEW YORK (November 30, 2016) -- Cornell Cooperative Extension Chautauqua County’s 4-H Program held two Drone Discovery events in October as part of the 2016 National Youth Science Day Engineering Design Challenge.

4-H National Youth Science Day (NYSD) is the world’s largest youth-led science experiment. Each year thousands of youth take part in the National Science Challenge focusing on important STEM topics and issues. Drone Discovery was developed by Anne Glasgow and June Mead of CCE Broome County, Chip Malone from CCE Genessee, Susan Hoskins, Soil & Crop Sciences, Cornell University, and Alexa Maille, New York State 4-H STEM specialist.

The activity is a hands-on engineering design challenge that explores the science behind drones and how they can solve real world problems. Youth first experimented flight dynamics with prop copters. They then created a foam glider, the PFG-9, and further experimented with flight dynamics and modified the glider so that it would fly in a circular pattern. Youth then worked as a team to assemble a foam glider and attached a small camera with the goal of videoing their pre-determined target. The final activity in Drone Discovery was learning about coordinates and how they are used to remotely fly drones. Youth utilized Scratch, a kid-friendly program developed by MIT that allows youth to create codes. Drone Discovery programming directed youth to program the flight of a virtual drone to detect a target.

CCE Chautauqua 4-H Youth Development held two Drone Discovery events on Saturday, October 8, 2016. Mike Jabot, professor at SUNY Fredonia and CCE Chautauqua Master Gardener, held an event for twelve youth on the SUNY Fredonia campus with the help of students Kyra Skelton, Elly Martin, Jasmine Barrow, Autumn Joseph, Yuki Yamauchi, Liza Ganz, Stephanie Dueñas, and Zach Beaudoin. Kate Ewer, 4-H Community Educator, held an event for six youth at the Frank Bratt Ag Center.

For more information about Drone Discovery and to purchase your own kit visit http://4-h.org/parents/national-youth-science-day/ or call the 4-H Office at 716-664-9502 ext. 212.

The 4-H Program is one of many programs offered by Cornell Cooperative Extension of Chautauqua County (CCE-Chautauqua). CCE-Chautauqua is a community based educational organization, affiliated with Cornell University, Chautauqua County Government, the NYS SUNY system, and the federal government through the United States Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture. For more information, call 716-664-9502 or visit our website at www.cce.cornell.edu/chautauqua. Cornell University Cooperative Extension provides equal program and employment opportunities.